Happy Birthday Wait But Why

Wait But Why’s first post went live one year ago today, on Monday, July 8, 2013.

With 24 million readers in 195 countries since then (still waiting on you, Western Sahara), Year 1 has exceeded our expectations, to put it mildly.

All of this has us incredibly energized for Year 2 and beyond. The first priority will continue to be the post every Tuesday(ish). The Year 1 plan was “Tim will write high quality posts about stuff, on a regular schedule.” And stuff was a good Year 1 topic, but writing posts for a year has given me a much better sense of the areas I want to hone in on, and our list of over 300 future post topics makes me anxious because I want to do them all right now.

Then there are all the other ideas Andrew and I have. There are several other content mediums we’re dying to try, a bunch of weird products we want to make for the store, and we’ve been talking a lot about new creative ways to engage our readers and make Wait But Why more interactive.

For now, though, we want to say thanks—but in order to say thanks accurately, we need categories:

To those readers who came to the site once after someone sent them a link to an article and then left forever—you and WBW had an underwhelming (or maybe a horrible) first date, or maybe you’re just the noncommital type. Either way, we hope someone sends you another link and things go better next time. Still, you at some point dedicated five minutes of your life to us, so here’s a stick figure drawing, but not the whole body, only the head and neck, and it doesn’t matter because you’re not reading this right now anyway.

To those readers who are on the site from time to time but repeatedly forget that it exists, we hope you’re enjoying the fling as much as we are. You treat our body like an object, but that’s okay—we’re just happy you keep texting us when you’re drunk. You get a full stick figure drawing. Sorry the face came out weird.

Finally, to the readers who stumbled upon Wait But Why sometime in the last 12 months, liked what they saw, started coming back regularly, and today are committed readers—the people who keep telling their friends about us, who subscribe by email, who support the site, who stay patient with us as we continue to figure out what the hell we’re doing, and those who simply keep coming back week after week even though we sometimes put up a post they hate—you are our husbands and wives, and we love you. Some part of your brain has a lot in common with some part of our brains, and we’re thrilled that the internet has allowed our brains to play together. These posts are for you.